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Hello everyone!!

How was your summer so far? At least in Germany it doesn’t feel like summer at all – it is quite cold and rainy at times. The few hot days we had are already weeks ago and I didn’t have any time then to go to an open air pool or do something else summery 😉

So please tell me you had a great summer and make me jealous!! 🙂

What I have for you today is my recipe for homemade Cherry Bakewells.

Sharing this recipe with you feels like letting you in on a very big secret!!

I still can remember when I had my first Cherry Bakewell ever – it was during my Au Pair stay in Ireland. The family I stayed with had them at home one day, in their box, looking very pretty with the thick white icing and the shiny little glace cherry on top. I have never seen anything like those little tarts in German stores, I guess nobody really had enough patience to produce such little pastries in masses for a store to sell! 🙂

So I went ahead and tried one – rich and sweet softness, a buttery pastry outside with a moist filling with berry flavors and just a hint of almond! I fell in love right there and then!!

And now, every time I go back to Ireland (which is quite often as you may have read here, here or here) I just HAVE to buy at least one box of Cherry Bakewells to eat right there or take home with me. They are the perfect little treat and spend sweet comfort and utter satisfaction. The only problem is, or at least was, that I couldn’t find them anywhere in Germany and the ones I took home from Ireland where gone all too quickly!

I dreamed about making them at home for soo long and finally having them recreated I can say it was a lot easier than I thought!! Of course, it takes some time, and shaping the pastry cups needs some practice but by the end the result – holding my own homemade Cherry Bakewells in my hands and knowing that I can now have them any time I want – was totally worth it!!

And as an added bonus: They freeze perfectly!! I just popped them in a reclosable freezer bag and whenever I felt the urge of a little comfort in sweetness I just took one or two out and let them come back to room temperature. This only took about 2 hours and they tasted just perfect!

a few drops of almond flavour or essence (we have Bittermandel-Öl in Germany)

Icing:

175g (1½ cups) icing sugar

1-2 Tablespoons of water

12 glace cherries

Instructions

Pastry:

Rub butter into flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and cold water one teaspoon at the time until dough comes together.

Wrap in cling film and store in fridge for at least 30 min.

Meanwhile prepare your muffin tin by greasing all molds with butter or margarine.

Take dough out of the fridge and devide into 12 portions. Line the muffin molds with pastry dough by rolling every portion into a circle big enough to fill it or devide each portion into 2, shaping one into a snake that covers the sides of the muffin mold and one into a ball and press it down to form the bottom. Shape the dough with your fingers into pastry cups.

Filling:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of strawberry jam (or any other kind you like) into each pastry cup.

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and mix until well incorporated.

Devide the mixture between the 12 pastry cups and make sure that the jam is completely covered.

Bake your Cherry Bakewells for 20 minutes until golden.

After taking them out of the oven press the filling mixture softly back down again with the back side of a spoon to form a little mold for the icing. Let the bakewells cool down before taking them out of the muffin tin.

Icing:

Mix icing sugar with the water (don't put it all in at once, just add little by little until you have a thick white glace) and spoon on top of the bakewells. Top each tart with a glace cherry as long as the icing is still wet.

Let the Cherry Bakewells completely cool down and enjoy!

Notes

They freeze very well - just take them out of the freezer and let them come back to room temperature!